Known are machines for filling containers, and more specifically boxes (hence commonly called boxing machines), with diverse products, in particular fruits and certain vegetables and in general more or less round plant products, which are packed in wooden or cardboard boxes. Among these machines some pick up and transport the products by the suction caused by vacuum, for which purpose they include devices provided with suction cups that are flexible in the degree required by the greater or lesser resistance of the surface of the products to be handled, to ensure maximum contact between the suction cups and the products, in order to limit losses of vacuum.
With said type of machines there are formed layers of fruits or other more or less round products in boxes or the like, in predetermined geometric arrangements normally designed so that the units of such products adjust themselves in each layer and so as to stabilize the contents of the box with a view to its transportation and to obtain a good appearance at the point of sale, in case the product is offered directly with the box open for display to the buying public.
The known type of machine referred to operates by transferring the fruits from supply means to the respective box, which in turn is conveyed by transporting means, thereby automating the filling process previously carried out manually. Said transfer is made by using simultaneously multiple suction cups which, in each operation, transport a complete layer or a complete row of fruits; and the box is lowered to transfer the next layer of fruit on top, when filling with more than one layer.
If a complete layer is transferred, the machine must have two transfer stations for a single box, to be able to pack two different and mutually complementary arrangements of superposed layers; this makes the machine more expensive, increases the space occupied by it, raises the handling cost, and in particular necessitates changing various elements and devices and making various adjustments in order to adapt the machine--within certain limits imposed by its functional organs and structure--to the different spatial distributions of the fruits in their containers and to the various sizes of the latter. All this taking into account the peremptory and ever changing requirements, even within the same day, that may in the practice present themselves to the user of these machines, with the consequent delays, which amount to a reduction in output and to additional labor costs for such adaptation to the practical needs.
If a complete row of fruits is transferred, something similar occurs; in a variant, the machine has devices which stop the passage of vacuum to the suction cup or cups needed for the desired complementary configuration in alternate rows of one and the same layer, with the same or similar disadvantages.